Why next year’s hiring landscape is terrifying

Don’t wait until the last minute on this one…

Hiring is coming back. But I worry that a lot of companies aren’t ready.

In the past 4 months, we’ve sold a dozen new solutions engagements. In our world that means large scale, fully committed, double digital hiring initiatives. And it’s the full spectrum, too: tech, sales & marketing, HR, ops, finance & accounting, etc.

For context: the previous 12 months we sold a total of 5. It was our bread and butter. It fell off a cliff. And now it’s back.

And the pipeline for these sorts of hiring binges is growing.

So what’s the problem?

For us? Nothing. But for the broader hiring landscape:

👉Internal teams are gutted. Companies cut internal recruiting to the bone. I can’t recall a time where companies (broadly speaking) were less set prepared to ramp up hiring with their internal teams.

Even if you’re posting jobs and getting decent inbound, who is going to comb through them and screen 50 people an hour?

👉HR Tech still sucks. AI’s biggest contribution to recruiting is allowing job seekers to spam apply to hundreds of companies. And in turn, allowing those companies to bot screen the pile. Cut humans out of both sides of the equation. Smart.

More on that here.

👉Even with the deluge of applicants for every single Office Dork™️ job, the suits want passive talent.

The old “never hire someone who wants to work here” mindset. If you’re looking, there’s something wrong with you. (If this is your first time here, read that with a heavy sarcasm tone.)

Long story short: if you’re looking to scale hiring in 2025, the time to start thinking about how you’re going to do that (whether it’s partnering with a firm or hiring TA internally) isn’t then. It’s right now.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.